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Mining Guild
The Mining Guild is an organization of industrial labor and transport interests concerned with extraction of valuable minerals and chemicals from the outer planets of the Republic and Sapphire systems, the transport of same to worlds where they are needed, and the sale of same in the commodities markets in New Halifax (Sapphire) or the Ministry of Mineral and Chemical Resource Management on Republic. Operations The Mining Guild is based on Gigantor Station 1: A large complex built into a moon of Gigantor called Tetsujin. They maintain a secondary headquarters in the City of Resources, Republic. The Guild maintains additional bases throughout the Republic and Sapphire systems. (Most notoriously, the Gigantor 4 Megabase on Gigantor’s moon of Tencton; with its numerous gambling complexes and sex malls.) The Mining Guild operates a fleet of ships, the exact number of which is disputed, or at least hidden in the Byzantine accounting practices used by the Guild. These ships include large ore extractors equipped with mining cannons and debris collectors, trans-atmospheric extraction ships for scooping chemicals out of the atmosphere of gas giants, even more ginormous processing ships that refine the ore and chemicals before delivery to markets, survey ships for identifying the sources of chemicals and minerals, utility and support ships to maintain other ships, and one of the largest fleets of shuttles and transports in the two systems. Working Conditions The romantic view of Guilders is that they are persons and individuals who didn’t fit in to Republicker or Sapphirean society and sought a new life in the Mining Guild. While this may be few of a small percentage of Guild workers; most members of the Guild have a prior existing personal connection to the guild. Advancement is usually based on seniority and recommendations of superiors and co-workers; leading to a lot of insiderism and nepotism. Command of one of the large extractors or processors is seen as the pinnacle of a career in the Guild, and these commands are typically passed from Captain to First Officer. Promotion within a crew is at the recommendation of the captain, but must be approved by the Guild Committee of Directors. Debilitating injuries are common owing to the danger of the work. Common sources of such injuries include decompression, radiation exposure, and blunt force trauma. The Guild operates Rehabilitative facilities on low-gravity moons in the Sapphire and Republic systems; retirement and disability colonies are also located on these moons to facilitate the movement and comfort of debilitated guild workers. History The planet Sapphire has an environment amenable to human habitation, abundant plant and animal life, water, and an oxygen-rich atmosphere. However, certain minerals key to an advanced technological society (including Platinum, Palladium, Molybdenum, Tungsten, Yttrium, Erbium, Neodymium, and Vanadium) are rare and found only in viable quantities on the continent of Carpentaria. The original Mining Guild was established in the city of New Halifax to manage the extraction of these rare and essential minerals. When Sapphire began recovering in the years after the Ice Age of the The Thousand Year blight, new sources for these essential minerals needed to be discovered. Extractable quantities of these metals were detected in the moons of Gigantor and Forseti. Advancements in space transport systems developed by Cloudbuster Aerospace made it economically feasible to reach and exploit these resources. At first, it was thought to be most efficient to transport the minerals from the rocky worlds by building railgun accelerators on the surface of the moons and shooting chunks of ore to Sapphire for processing. After several unfortunate accidents and near-misses, the plan was changed and minerals were transported on ore ships. Later, processing ships and on-site processing plants were developed to refine the ore before transport to market. Over the next two centuries, the Guild grew in size and power enough to become practically a nation unto itself; operating between Sapphire and Republic but only loosely governed by either world. The Guild developed its own organization, laws, culture, and even language to a degree. Pirates Many, perhaps most, pirates are rogue guild operators who left or were expelled from the Guild for disciplinary or other problems. They typically operate stolen ships out of hidden bases in the Sapphire out-system, and prey on passenger liners, cargo ships, and ore transporter-processors then sell the proceeds through complicit intermediaries. It was the rise of piracy that resulted in the formation of the Space Wing of the Permanent Sapphire Defense Situation. Category:Culture